You are an artist. You are afraid of heckling on the internet. But if you’re gonna overcome the block and put anything out there, you either have to throw all caution to the wind or hold strong in the conviction that your audience wants to like you.
Continue reading “Your Audience Wants to Like You”Category: Musing
Don’t Keep Going for the Easy Win
Lately I’ve fallen into the trap of sacrificing harder creative work for tedious-but-predictable busywork. How to crawl out of the trap?
Continue reading “Don’t Keep Going for the Easy Win”The Downward Spiral of Self-Deprecation
So I’m going through life, and something innocuous hits me wrong. I don’t feel like being specific, so…let’s pretend it’s an umbrella. Sure. Maybe umbrellas have never bothered me a single moment in my life, until now, this day, when my subconscious mind makes a connection between umbrellas and my deepest fears. A truly unhelpful one.
I spot an umbrella on the ground and for some reason, just seeing it sends a pang through my nerves. A Downward Spiral of Self-Deprecation begins:
Continue reading “The Downward Spiral of Self-Deprecation”Do I Even Have Time for All My Hobbies?
What happened to all that random fun crap I used to do?!
I guess I just got older and busier. Boo-hoo, that’s what happens to pretty much everyone. And yet I’m gonna talk more about it, and how I subconsciously vetted my hobbies to make the most of them.
Continue reading “Do I Even Have Time for All My Hobbies?”The RoyalRoad Blue Box Metagame
(this is 75% shitpost)
Continue reading “The RoyalRoad Blue Box Metagame”Intros in LitRPGs…and Beyond
There’s something unique and oddly compelling about the first several chapters of your typical LitRPG. Unique, compelling, and…isolated.
Continue reading “Intros in LitRPGs…and Beyond”Productivity Talk: My Inner Ned, My Inner Homer
When I have a really successful week followed by a slack one, it’s like New Me seeing Old, More Successful Me across the backyard fence. New Me struggles to assemble a pool while Old Me happily trims the bushes.
“Hidely-ho, neighborino!” says Old Me.
“RRRAAAAAUGH!” screams New Me as the pool explodes.
Continue reading “Productivity Talk: My Inner Ned, My Inner Homer”The Creative Thrill is Gone?
I declare that my creative zest is at an all-time low.
Continue reading “The Creative Thrill is Gone?”Can’t Make Kid’s Programs Like This Anymore (…And Probably Shouldn’t!)
Quick: name something you can’t put on your TV network for six-year-olds in the United States. “Guns and excessive violence?” That’s old news. “Racism?” Uh, we hope that’s old news. Here are two categories I propose: “things that are nightmarish” and “things that are really gross.”
Let that sink in. Two categories that dominated children’s TV in the 90s and left a long shadow seem to be fading away.
(Also, if you are a kid, please don’t read this, or my PG-13 blog in general.)
Continue reading “Can’t Make Kid’s Programs Like This Anymore (…And Probably Shouldn’t!)”The 5 Most Futuristic Covers Of All Space-Time
Some albums, books, or other cultural artifacts look very “of their time.” Others—at least in retrospect—look like downright time-travelers.
And a recent impulse buy has graced me with the most bizarrely timeless cover art I’ve ever seen.
Continue reading “The 5 Most Futuristic Covers Of All Space-Time”